Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
“Platinum Sponsor” of Women’s March
Founded: 1970
Founder: Gus Speth, Richard Ayres, and Tom Stoel
Website: www.nrdc.org
Location:
New York
40 West 20th Street
11th floor
New York, NY 10011
212.727.2700
Agenda:
- One of America’s most influential environmentalist groups
- Responsible for the 1989 Alar hoax
- Endorsed the Earth Charter, a document blaming capitalism for many of the world’s environmental, social, and economic problems
- Ally of the Corporate Ethics International, an environmental group whose mission is to bring corporations “under the control of the citizenry”
- Asserts that “carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutants”—which are by-products of human industrial activity—contribute heavily to potentially catastrophic global warming
- Contends that “communities of color, which are often poor, are routinely targeted to host facilities that have negative environmental impacts”
Funder:
Among NRDC’s leading backers are the Bauman Family Foundation, the Beldon Fund, the Blue Moon Fund, the Bullitt Foundation, the Columbia Foundation, the Compton Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Educational Foundation of America, the Energy Foundation, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the Heinz Family Foundation, the J.M. Kaplan Fund, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, the New York Times Company Foundation, George Soros’s Open Society Institute, Pew Charitable Trusts, the Prospect Hill Foundation, the Public Welfare Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Scherman Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, the Tides Foundation, the Turner Foundation, the Vira I. Heinz Endowment, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and many others.
2008 – 2016 federal grants: $ 4,638,958
2015 Total Revenue: 155,192,637
Key people:
- RHEA SUH: President
- MITCHELL BERNARD: Chief Counsel
- STEVE BAGINSKI: Chief Financial Officer
- SUSAN CASEY-LEFKOWITZ: Chief Program Officer
- MICHELLE EGAN: Chief Communications Officer
- MERCEDES FALBER: Chief Human Resources Officer
- HENRY HENDERSON: Director, Midwest program
- ABBY SCHAEFER: Chief Board Relations Officer
- ANDERS YANG: Chief Development Officer
- ANDREW JACKSON
Board:
CHAIR
Daniel R. Tishman
Chairman & CEO, Tishman Construction; Vice Chairman, Tishman Hotel & Realty; Vice Chairman, AECOM Technology
CHAIR EMERITUS
Frederick A.O. Schwarz, Jr.
Chief Counsel, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School; Senior Counsel, Cravath, Swaine and Moore, LLP
VICE CHAIR
Alan F. Horn
Chairman, The Walt Disney Studios
VICE CHAIR
Wendy K. Neu
Chairman and CEO, Hugo Neu Corporation; grassroots community organizer and activist
VICE CHAIR
Max Stone
Managing Director, The D. E. Shaw Group
VICE CHAIR
David C. Vladeck
Professor, Georgetown Law
TREASURER
Mary Moran
Environmentalist; foundation director
John H. Adams
Founding Director, NRDC; Chair, Open Space Institute
Hon. Anne Slaughter Andrew
Advisor, Sustainable Energy Investments
Richard E. Ayres
The Ayres Law Group
Patricia Bauman
President, Bauman Foundation; Chair, NRDC Action Fund; Co-chair of the Brennan Center for Justice
Anita Bekenstein
Environmentalist; foundation director
Claire Bernard
President, Mariposa Foundation
Anna Scott Carter
Environmentalist; Co-founder, Clean by Design initiative
Sarah E. Cogan
Partner, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, New York Office
Laurie David
Author, Producer, Advocate; Co-founder, NRDC Los Angeles Leadership Council
Leonardo DiCaprio
Actor; environmentalist; Founder, Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation
John E. Echohawk
Executive Director, Native American Rights Fund
Victor L. Hymes
CEO and Chief Investment Officer, Legato Capital Management LLC
Nicole E. Lederer
Chair and Co-founder, Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2)
Shelly B. Malkin
Artist; conservationist
Josephine A. Merck
Artist; Founder, Ocean View Foundation
Kelly Chapman Meyer
Co-founder, American Heart Association Teaching Gardens
Peter Morton
Chairman/Founder, 510 Development Corp.
Frederica P. Perera, Dr.P.H., Ph.D.
Professor, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health; Director, Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health
Robert Redford
Actor; director; conservationist
Laurance Rockefeller
Conservationist
Tom Roush, M.D.
Private investor; environmental activist
William H. Schlesinger
President Emeritus, the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Wendy Schmidt
President, The Schmidt Family Foundation; Founder, The 11th Hour Project
James Taylor
Singer/Songwriter
Gerald Torres
Jane M.G. Foster Professor, Cornell University Law School
David F. Welch, Ph.D.
President, Infinera Corporation
Kathleen A. Welch
Principal, Corridor Partners
Eric Wepsic
Managing Director, The D. E. Shaw Group
George M. Woodwell, Ph.D.
Founder, Director Emeritus, Woods Hole Research Center
HONORARY TRUSTEES
Dean Abrahamson, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota
Henry R. Breck
Partner, Heronetta Management, L.P.
Joan K. Davidson
President, Furthermore Grants in Publishing; Former NY State Parks Commissioner; President Emerita, J.M. Kaplan Fund
Sylvia A. Earle, Ph.D.
Chair, Deep Ocean Exploration, and Research, Inc.
Robert J. Fisher
Director, Gap Inc.
Charles E. Koob
Partner, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, LLP
Philip B. Korsant
Member, Long Light Capital, LLC
Ruben Kraiem
Partner, Covington and Burling, LLP
Burks B. Lapham
Environmentalist
Maya Lin
Artist/Designer
Daniel Pauly, Ph.D.
Professor of Fisheries and Zoology
Nathaniel P. Reed
Businessman; conservationist
Cruz Reynoso
Professor of Law, UC Davis
John R. Robinson
Attorney
Jonathan F. P. Rose
President, Jonathan Rose Companies LLC
Christine H. Russell, Ph.D.
Environmentalist; foundation director
John Sheehan
United Steelworkers of America (retired)
James Gustave Speth
Professor of Law, Vermont Law School; Distinguished Senior Fellow, Demos
Frederick A. Terry, Jr.
Senior Counsel, Sullivan & Cromwell
Thomas A. Troyer
Member, Caplin & Drysdale
Kirby Walker
Independent film/video producer
Elizabeth Wiatt
Environmentalist; Co-founder, NRDC Los Angeles Leadership Council
